Coinbase Unveils Ethereum (ETH) L2 Network, Base Following Cryptic Tweet

On Feb. 22, the top U.S. crypto exchange, Coinbase, posted a cryptic tweet that garnered a lot of attention from the crypto community.

The tweet, which only had an image of a small blue circle, was retweeted by crypto platforms, including the official Chainlink Twitter account.

Crypto enthusiast and founder of Gokhshtein Media, David Gokhshtein, guessed that the teaser tweet might be about a token.

Gotta be a token.

— David Gokhshtein (@davidgokhshtein) February 22, 2023

The teaser tweet appears to be regarding “Base,” an Ethereum L2 network powered by Optimism.

In a blog post, Coinbase announced the testnet launch of Base: “Today, we’re excited to announce the testnet launch of Base, an Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) network offering a secure, low-cost, developer-friendly way for anyone, anywhere, to build decentralized apps, or ‘dapps,’ onchain.”

[DB] Coinbase Announces Base, an Ethereum L2 Network Powered by Optimism

— db (@tier10k) February 23, 2023

According to the company, Base will be Coinbase’s native blockchain, the new home for its on-chain products, and an open ecosystem for millions of brand-new decentralized applications.

This makes it clear that Base was not a token and that no additional network tokens will be created for Base. The native gas token for the network will instead be ETH.

It stated that “Base” would be powered by Coinbase and secured by Ethereum. A goal of Base was to make it simple and safe to access the L1 ecosystems of Solana, Ethereum L1 and other L2s.

Following the announcement, on-chain data provider Nansen announced a partnership with Base to provide data analytics to both builders and users.